Africa-Press – Ghana. President John Dramani Mahama has tasked Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minister of Education to come out with a detailed analysis report on the performance of candidates in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
“Recently, the West African Examinations Council has released the results for the last West African School Certificate Examination. The result has become an issue of great concern to government, parents, and the public at large,” President Mahama stated in his address at the launch of the Made-In-Ghana Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Box (STEMBox) for basic schools in Accra.
A STEMBox is a collection of materials and instructions designed to provide engaging, hands-on learning experiences in these fields.
The President reiterated his charge on the Education Minister and the Ghana Education Service (GES)to do an analysis of the examiner’s report to try and decipher what could have gone so disastrously wrong.
“It is mind-boggling that with the same teachers, the same factors in play, just from one batch to another one batch you know, does so disastrously. And so we need to get to the bottom of it,” he said.
“But it also emphasises the issue of foundational learning. One of the major things that has taken place in the last several years is the neglect of basic education, inability to send the capitation grants, ensuring that we have quality teachers at a foundational level, at a basic level, because it is that level that prepares the child for secondary and tertiary education.”
President Mahama said once one does not get the basic level right, one would just send the child through a conveyor belt like a factory; “and when it comes out at the end, it will be picked out by quality control and said that this one did not do well.”
He said therefore their focus must be on foundational learning.
And foundational learning meant that by the time a child leaves primary school, he or she should be able to read properly, write properly, and be able to do basic arithmetic.
He said if they were able to get the nation’s children to get these three things right, writing, reading, and arithmetic, then they have the foundation to continue into secondary education.
Otherwise, it would be a factory that was just pushing them through and at the end of it, one had the situation where a child finishes basic school and sometimes still finds it difficult to write his name, he explained.
“Vigilance is not going to go away. Strict invigilation is not going to go away. And so we must make sure that the children are well prepared to, on their own, be able to study and pass the exams that are waiting for them,” President Mahama said.
He said, he had asked the sector Minister and the Director General of GES to study the examiner’s report and let them see what quick reforms they could carry out in order that the children get a quality education.
Mr Iddrisu, in his response, said they were currently reviewing the examiner’s report on the 2025 WASSCE; stating that as and when it was necessary and appropriate to respond, they would respond adequately and satisfactorily.
“But our commitment to the provision of quality education under the leadership of President Mahama will remain unparalleled as the President will demonstrate in the coming days,” he said.
For More News And Analysis About Ghana Follow Africa-Press
